12.5" Cretaceous Fossil Shark (Pararhinchodon) - With Pos/Neg

Cretaceous Fossil Shark (Pararhinchodon) - With Pos/Neg #107614

This is a rare, fossil shark (likely Pararhinchodon) from the famous Upper Cretaceous marine deposits in Lebanon. Like most of the sharks in the Lebonese lagerstätten it is fairly small at 12.5" long but with great preservation. Sharks like this are one of the rarer components of the fauna in the formation, particularly ones this nice. Both the positive and negative splits are included. There are a few repaired cracks on the negative side, but there has been no restoration done to this piece. There are also a couple of fossil shrimp associated with the shark.

It comes with an acrylic display stand.

The discovery of amazingly preserved marine fossils near Hjoula, Lebanon dates back many centuries. In fact, they were first mentioned in writing by Herodotus, over 450 years before the birth of Christ. The first scientific work on these localities began in the 1800s: these deposits have been meticulously quarried by several Lebanese families for over a century. We purchase our specimens directly from one of these families.

These deposits represent a warm, shallow sea of the Middle Cretaceous, and have yielded over 70 types of fish and numerous other genera found nowhere else in the world. The preservation on many of these specimens is truly amazing: many examples of soft bodied preservation have been found.

A photo of one of the quarries at Hjoula, Lebanon